Paladin III/12

Continuing with my personal crusade in honour of twelve peers of Charlemagne, today we have on display 3rd of the 12 paladins I decided to create in Heroforge.

Since I started doing this, I came up with a set of rules every paladin I create must adhere to. These rules are:

1. Paladin must have a cross
2. Paladin must have a book
3. Paladin must have a sword, spear, mace or any other knightly weapon
4. No more than two items of the same armour set can be used on the same paladin
5. No armour piece can be used more than once across all 12 paladins
6. Weapons and shields can be duplicated across the 12 characters
7. Armour, weapons and shields used should strive toward realism
8. The models should be human in look and size
9. Paladin should wear a ring

I reworded rule 5 to be clearer, added armour to rule 7 and added rule 9. The last rule is in order to indicate that a paladin is someone in position of power, someone with authority, most likely a nobility.

The intention of these self imposed rules is to make things interesting. There is no fun if we can just take the entire premade set and be done with it.

As I mentioned previously, it is important to me that a paladin has a book, a knightly weapon, and a cross. To me, it is the presence of all three items that differentiates a paladin from your regular run of the mill warrior.

Today's paladin is one of the more complex models I made. Although not visible, the model has 5 and not just 2 arms. One arm was used to rig the cross in the middle of the chest piece. A second pair of arms was used to make a longer historically more accurate halberd. The second pair of hands also wears its own set of leather gloves, which in combination with Basic Plate Mail Gauntlets, that are in truth only vambraces, gives the impression of actual gauntlets.

The model itself draws inspiration from the knight armour of the late middle ages when full plate armour became more common, and consequently shields were replaced for big two handed weapons.

Another detail are also spurs that come with cowboy boots. Paint them in colours of the armour, and they make great sabatons.

You can find the link to the paladin in title picture here.

For those who missed it, here are the first two paladins I already made available:

The first one draped in black with silver details takes inspiration from the the Order of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem or more commonly knowns as Knights Hospitaller. There are three elements worth paying attention to. First, there is again a cross in the center of the chestpiece. This, looking at the rest of the paladins currently in the process of making will certainly become a signature thing for me. In his left he holds a spear that is far longer than what Heroforge otherwise allows. This effect is accomplished to the 2nd hand holding one more spear positioned at the same location as the first hand. The spear was then turned upside down and stuck to the floor. The third item worth the attention is his right hand resting at his sword handle.

You can find the link to the first paladin here.

The second paladin's white-red colour palate is traditionally associated with Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon or more commonly known as the Knights Templar. Colour palate aside, the model features heavy middle eastern influences. While I used barbute for headpiece, I avoided using feathers on the helmet, as I thought that'd be cheating. Unfortunately I found no other horns satisfactory in order to simulate the infamous horned helmets of the Teutonic Knight order. While there were some difficulties, I managed to have a spear rest on the shoulders, while the cross appears to hang at the belt together with the holy book. What is even more impressive, I didn't require a cloak to hide any "extra" hand sticking out of the back.

You can find the link to the second paladin here.

Three done, nine more to go. Deus lo vult!